Republican politicians' talk about the budget deficit as one of the biggest problems we face. They rant against the "tax and spend" Democrats as the cause of the problem. Neither is true.
Listen to the facts:
1. The huge expansion in the deficit came during the George W. Bush administration, because he gave a huge tax cut, mostly to the wealthy, and he started two war without even pretending to try to pay for either. Rather than even asking Congress to raise taxes, as we should in wartime, he increased our deficit and our national debt. And then the 2008 financial meltdown came during Bush's term, with the resulting huge expansion of deficit in 2009.
2. Since Barack Obama has been president, the deficit has shrunk by $1 trillion dollars. As a percentage of our economy, it is now almost 10% less than when he took office.
3. Because of repeated distortions and lies from the Republicans, a 2014 Bloomberg Politics poll found that 73% of the public believes the deficit has gotten bigger during Obama's administration.
Yes, we still have a deficit -- but look at that chart above. The red lines represent Bush budget results, the blue ones Obama's. Why turn it back over to the ones who caused the trouble to start with?
The good news is that what Obama has done is working. It would have been even better if the conservative congress had allowed more progressive principles to be used -- larger government spending on things like infrastructure, creating jobs, and education -- rather than austerity spending cuts.
Ralph
Latest deficit news: The above chart's figure for fiscal year 2015 was based on estimates. Since the chart was made, FY 2015 has been completed as of Sept. 30th, and the deficit was even lower than estimated: $439 billion, down from $483 in FY 2014.
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